WASHINGTON -- President-elect Donald Trump said Wednesday that he's leaving his business empire to focus on being the nation's 45th president, declaring he can successfully avoid conflicts of interest between governing and profiting in the private sector.
RELATED ARTICLE
http://www.arkansas…">Democrats say recount a waste
"I will be leaving my great business in total in order to fully focus on running the country in order to make America great again," he said in a series of tweets sent before dawn. "While I am not mandated to do this under the law, I feel it is visually important, as president, to in no way have a conflict of interest with my various businesses."
In another tweet, he said he "will be holding a major news conference in New York City with my children on December 15 to discuss the fact that I will be leaving my great business in total in order to fully focus on running the country in order to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"
Trump did not provide any details about how he planned to separate from his businesses, though he said legal documents were being prepared. He has previously said that he'd leave his business operations to his three eldest children -- Donald Jr., Eric and Ivanka.
[TRUMP: Timeline of president-elect’s career + list of appointments so far]
Trump senior adviser Kellyanne Conway said Wednesday that the three are expected to "increase their responsibilities" in the Trump Organization.
Ethics experts have pushed for Trump to fully exit the ownership of his businesses using a blind trust or equivalent arrangement.
"Otherwise he will have a personal financial interest in his businesses that will sometimes conflict with the public interest and constantly raise questions," Norman Eisen, President Barack Obama's chief ethics lawyer, and Richard Painter, who held the same post for President George W. Bush, said in a joint statement Wednesday.
Trump's comments did little to convince critics such as Sen. Benjamin Cardin, D-Md., who along with 23 colleagues introduced a resolution Tuesday calling on Trump to follow the precedents set by past presidents and hold his assets in a form guaranteeing no conflicts.
[EMAIL UPDATES: Sign up for free breaking email alerts and other Democrat-Gazette daily news updates]
"I was encouraged to see the president-elect's initial response, but the devil is in the details, which Mr. Trump was short on in his tweets," Cardin said. "The fact that his announcement will be done with his children at his side leaves many questions as to whether he and his lawyers understand the meaning of a blind trust."
Trump's sprawling business empire is unprecedented for a modern sitting president, as is the complexity and opaqueness of his financial holdings. He refused to release his taxes during the campaign, citing an ongoing audit, and will be under no legal obligation to do so in the White House.
Trump owns golf clubs, office towers and other properties in several countries. He holds ownership stakes in more than 500 companies. He has struck licensing deals for use of his name on hotels and other buildings around the world and has been landing new business in the Middle East, India and South America.
Reince Priebus, Trump's incoming White House chief of staff, was vague Wednesday in describing how the president-elect planned to separate himself from his businesses, saying "that'll all be worked out."
Priebus said on MSNBC's Morning Joe that Trump has "got the best people in America working on it." Priebus demurred when asked if Trump planned to put his businesses in a blind trust -- as presidents have traditionally done -- or leave them in his children's hands.
"I'm not ready to reveal that really," Priebus said.
Priebus added that Trump's business acumen and the many interests he has as a result of it are "nothing to be ashamed about." He said the country hasn't seen a president with such business holdings before and the rules and regulations "don't contemplate this scenario."
Economic team
Trump was moving forward with his Cabinet selections, formally announcing former Goldman Sachs executive Steven Mnuchin as his pick for treasury secretary and billionaire investor Wilbur Ross for commerce secretary. As Ross' deputy, Trump turned to Chicago Cubs co-owner Todd Rickets, whose family members are powerful conservative donors.
"This team will be instrumental in implementing the President-elect's America First economic plan that will create more than 25 million jobs over the next decade," Trump's transition team said in statement.
Trump said that Ross, whose nomination is subject to Senate confirmation, "is a champion of American manufacturing and knows how to help companies succeed. Most importantly, he is one of the greatest negotiators I have ever met."
Mnuchin, 53, who led Trump's finance operations during the presidential campaign, has no government experience. If confirmed by the Senate, Mnuchin would play a central role in shaping Trump's tax policies and infrastructure plans. He also would lead an agency tasked with implementing international economic sanctions.
Trump's new team spread out to give a sales pitch Wednesday for his economic vision. In a joint interview with Ross on CNBC's Squawk Box, Mnuchin said revising the nation's tax code would be Trump's top priority, and he promised significant tax breaks for the middle class but no absolute cut for high-income households.
Arriving at Trump Tower Wednesday, Mnuchin said the administration planned "the most significant middle-income tax cut since Reagan." He also called for lowering corporate taxes to encourage companies to stay in the United States.
Asked how they would achieve Trump's promise to persuade U.S. businesses to repatriate large amounts of cash they have stockpiled overseas because of what they see as high corporate taxes, Mnuchin said, "Well, our first priority is going to be the tax plan, and the tax plan has both the corporate aspects to it, lowering corporate taxes so we make U.S. companies the most competitive in the world."
He added, without elaboration, that Trump will ensure that "we repatriate trillions of dollars back to the United States."
House Speaker Paul Ryan, who often clashed with Trump during the campaign but has been strongly supportive of the president-elect since his victory, praised his choices. "I am excited to get to work with this strong team to fix our broken tax code, ease the regulatory burden on American businesses, and grow our economy," Ryan, R-Wis., said in a statement.
Trump was accompanying his decision to line his Cabinet with financial industry insiders with an announcement that air-conditioning manufacturer Carrier Corp. planned to keep nearly 1,000 jobs in Indiana instead of moving them to Mexico. Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence, the outgoing Indiana governor, are to meet with Carrier officials today to announce the development.
"The Carrier deal, I think it's terrific," Mnuchin told reporters as he walked into Manhattan's Trump Tower on Wednesday morning to meet with his future boss. He said Trump and Pence had "picked up the phone and called the CEO of United Technologies and told them we want to keep jobs here. Can't remember the last time a president did that."
United Technologies is Carrier's parent company.
Details of the agreement were unclear. Trump spent much of his campaign pledging to keep companies like Carrier from moving jobs overseas, but he also dismissed tax incentives and favorable financing deals often used by state officials to keep major employers in their states.
In August, at a campaign rally in Erie, Pa., Trump declared such incentives don't work.
"Here's a low-interest loan if you stay in Pennsylvania. Here's a zero-interest loan. You don't have to pay. Here's a this. Here's a tax abatement of any kind you want. We'll help your employees. It doesn't work, folks," he said.
Nationally, manufacturers shed 10,000 jobs in November, according to a report released Wednesday by payroll services provider ADP. U.S. manufacturing firms have struggled in the past year as a stronger dollar has cut into exports and U.S. businesses have spent less on machinery and other equipment. They have cut 53,000 jobs in the past 12 months.
Secretary of state
Trump has narrowed his secretary of state candidates to four, including 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Trump aides said Wednesday.
It was the first time that Trump's transition team publicly has confirmed that Romney and Giuliani are competing for the highest ranking Cabinet position. Opponents of Romney have waged a remarkably public fight against him, saying the former Massachusetts governor should not get the nod because he attacked Trump in harsh personal terms during the presidential campaign and that Giuliani should be rewarded for his loyalty during the campaign.
Transition team officials would not name the other two finalists.
Trump aides said there is no set timetable for making a final selection on the State Department post and that the president-elect's decision will likely not be announced this week. Trump met with Romney on Tuesday night for a two-hour dinner at which the two men were seen laughing and munching on frog legs and other delicacies.
Afterward, Romney emerged and told reporters: "I had a wonderful evening with President-elect Trump." That stood in stark contrast to the campaign, during which Romney had been one of Trump's leading detractors, labeling him a "con man," a "fake" and a "phony" who was unprepared for the presidency.
Jason Miller, a senior Trump communications adviser, said Wednesday that Trump also "thought the dinner went very well" and that the two men had "good chemistry." He added that Trump and Romney "have not spent a significant amount of time together, so this is still the process of getting to know each other."
Information for this article was contributed by Julie Pace, Laurie Kellman, Kathleen Hennessey, Julie Bykowicz, Christopher Rugaber and Catherine Lucey of The Associated Press, and by Jerry Markon, Drew Harwell, Ylan Mui and Jim Tankersley of The Washington Post.
A Section on 12/01/2016